A recent Ebola outbreak in Guinea managed to spread fear across the residents, although the number of people suffering from it is relatively small: since February, the virus infected 16 people and killed 12 of them. The primary symptoms of Ebola often include some of the following: aches and pains (severe headaches, muscle and joint pain, etc.), sore throat, fever, loss of appetite, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhoea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, etc.
Thanks to The Guardian, we know that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the recent Ebola outbreak from Guinea.
Health authorities were able to defeat the virus after learning from previous outbreaks
Previous Ebola outbreaks from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo had their positive sides: the health authorities learned from those events how to tackle the recent outbreak. The chief of the WHO, Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed while cited by The Guardian:
Based on the lessons learned from the 2014-16 outbreak and through rapid, coordinated response efforts … Guinea managed to control the outbreak and prevent its spread beyond its borders.
Matshidiso Moeti, who is the WHO’s regional director for Africa, declared while also cited by The Guardian:
Although this Ebola outbreak flared up in the same area [of] West Africa … thanks to new innovations and lessons learned, Guinea managed to contain the virus in four months,
We are getting faster, better and smarter at fighting Ebola.
The Ebola virus is spread through direct contact with the infected person’s blood or other body fluids such as sweat, semen, vomit, urine, diarrhoea, or breast milk.
The Ebola outbreak between 2014 and 2016 was much more severe: it killed 11,300 people, while most of them were from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Scientists believe that the Ebola virus started in animals and made the jump to humans.
